edited by Jonathan Doyle

Cloverfield [BLU-RAY] (Paramount Home Entertainment, 6.3.2008) Disguised under deliberately goofy, yet deliciously edible-sounding, aliases such as Cheese and Slusho, Matt Reeves' Cloverfield was produced and rushed into theaters under an equally appetizing shroud of secrecy. From last year's incredibly elusive Super Bowl ad to the film's viral marketing campaign, Cloverfield had everybody scratching their heads and drooling in anticipation. Aside from the as-yet untitled title and the Blair Witch-ian visual style, the film's biggest appeal was the enigmatic creature who was last (un)seen hurling the decapitated head of the Statue of Liberty onto the crowded streets of New York City. All we knew about the mysterious beast was that it was big and angry. Now that the highy-anticipated project has come and gone, one question has fortunately been answered: Cloverfield was a major success. (continued)

Upcoming

December 31

Defiance

Good

January 2

Cargo 200

January 7

Silent Light

January 9

After Dark Horrorfest 2009

Bride Wars

How About You

Not Easily Broken

The Unborn

Yonkers Joe

January 16

Chandni Chwok to China

Cherry Blossoms

Hotel for Dogs

My Bloody Valentine 3-D

Notorious

Paul Blart: Mall Cop

January 21

Of Time and the City

Cannes Officially

email this story
read comments (19)
post a comment

The official 2008 Cannes Film Festival announcement went up just after 3 am this morning, and the ambiguity about Steven Soderbergh's two-headed Che Guevara drama -- The Argentine and Guerilla -- has been removed. It will definitely play there (possibly with The Argentine in some kind of not-quite-finished form, but whatever) and glory friggin' hallelujah!

Once again it feels as if the festival will have an ambitious centerpiece -- a long-haul piece de resistance by one of our country's finest filmmakers that journos can argue about and pick over and send messages home about and piss off the Miami Cubans with. All is now well with the world except for the sociopathic fiendishness of Hillary Clinton.

As reported last night by Variety's Todd McCarthy, Clint Eastwood's Changeling (is there a "The" in the title or not?) is also locked in.

As predicted earlier, Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and DreamWorks Animation's Kung Fu Panda will play there out of competition, as will Woody Allen's Vicky Cristina Barcelona.

Walter Salles' Linha de passe, an urban road movie, will play in Cannes -- "mostly set in Sao Paulo's high-rise hell, about four soccer star wannabe brothers," says Variety's report.

Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne willl bring The Silence of Lorna. France's Arnaud Desplechin returns with A Christmas Tale, a family drama with Catherine Deneuve and Mathieu Amalric. Atom Egoyan will arrive with Adoration. Wim Wenders will bring The Palermo Shooting, and Turkey's Nuri Bilge Ceylan will deliver Daydreams, a kind of detective drama.

James Toback's Tyson, a doc about the controversial former heavyweight champion, will play in Un Certain Regard.

Jia Zhangke's 24 City "may well be the only major Chinese film at Cannes," says the Variety piece, due to "a current bottleneck in the Chinese censorship process, which includes authorizing overseas travel."

James Toback, Mike Tyson

In Competition:

24 City, China, Jia Zhangke
Adoration, Canada, Atom Egoyan
Changeling, U.S., Clint Eastwood
Che (The Argentine, Guerrilla) Spain, Steven Soderbergh
Un Conte de noel, France, Arnaud Desplechin
Daydreams, Turkey, Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Delta,Germany-Hungary, Kornel Mundruczo
Il Divo, Paolo Sorrentino, Italy
Gomorra, Italy, Matteo Garrone
La Frontiere de l'aube, France, Philippe Garrel
Leonera, Argentina-South Korea, Pablo Trapero
Linha de Passe, Brazil, Walter Salles, Daniela Thomas
La Mujer sin cabeza, Argentina, Lucrecia Martel
My Magic, Singapore, Eric Khoo
The Palermo Shooting, Germany, Wim Wenders
Serbis, Philippines, Brillante Mendoza
The Silence of Lorna, U.K.-France, Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne
Synecdoche, New York, U.S., Charlie Kaufman
Waltz With Bashir, Israel, Ari Folman

Out of Competition:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, U.S., Steven Spielberg
Kung Fu Panda, U.S., Mark Osborne, John Stevenson
The Good, the Bad, the Weird, South Korea, Kim Jee-woon
Vicky Cristina Barcelona, U.S.-Spain, Woody Allen

Midnight Screenings:

Maradona, Spain-France, Emir Kusturica
Surveillance, U.S., Jennifer Lynch
The Chaser, South Korea, Na Hong-jin

Special Screenings:

Ashes of Time Redux, China, Wong Kar-wai
Of Time and the City, U.K., Terence Davies
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, U.S.-U.K., Marina Zenovich
Sangue Pazzo (Crazy Blood), Italy-France, Marco Tullio Giordana

Screening of the President of the Jury:

The Third Wave, U.S., Alison Thompson

Un Certain Regard:

A festa da menina morta, Brazil, Matheus Nachtergaele
Afterschool, U.S., Antonio Campos
De Ofrivilliga, Sweden, Ruben Ostlund
Je veux voir, France, Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
Johnny Mad Dog, France, Jean-Stephane Sauvaire
La vie moderne (profiles paysans), France, Raymond Depardon
Los Bastardos, Mexico, Amat Escalante
Milh handha al-bahr (Salt of This Sea), Palestine, Annemarie Jacir
O' Horten, Norway-Germany, Bent Hamer
Soi Cowboy, U.K., Thomas Clay
Tin Che, (Parking), Taiwan, Chung Mong-Hong
Tokyo!, France-Japan, Bong Joon-ho, Michel Gondry, Leos Carax
Tokyo Sonata, Japan, Kiyoshi Kurosawa
Tulpan, Germany, Sergey Dvortsevoy
Tyson, U.S., James Toback
Versailles, France, Pierre Schoeller
Wendy and Lucy, U.S., Kelly Reichardt
Cloud Nine, Germany, Andreas Dresen
Yi ban haishui, yi ban huoyan, China, Fendou Liu

Geezers Split on Marshall<< previous | next >>God-Given

Posted by Jeffrey Wells on April 23, 2008 at 8:36 AM

comment #1

p.Vice says ...

I'm throwing down the gauntlet Wells -- I dare you to skip the Soderbergh and Eastwood movies and instead take a chance on some filmmakers you've not familiar with. You sound just like the kind of person who'd go to France and walk into McDonalds.

Posted by p.Vice at April 23, 2008 8:49 AM

comment #2

Jamieson says ...

Really excited to see Egoyan's Adoration in there. Can not wait to see that film.

Posted by Jamieson at April 23, 2008 8:52 AM

comment #3

bill weber says ...

I guess the Che movies will be "fresh," and that's all that matters.

Posted by bill weber at April 23, 2008 8:54 AM

comment #4

roquentin says ...

All of that and no mention of Synecdoche, NY?

Posted by roquentin at April 23, 2008 8:56 AM

comment #5

alynch says ...

Boy, so now Hillary's a sociopath. I can't imagine what Jeff will be writing if she somehow ends up winning the nomination.

Posted by alynch at April 23, 2008 8:56 AM

comment #6

gruver1 says ...

Wells to P. Vice: Have I ever made myself out to be an esoteric Cannes film dweeb who flips out for films that only guys like Variety's Robert Koehler will really and truly love?

Sensibility and knowledge-wise I'm way ahead of your average U.S.-residing movie lover, but there are people who go to Cannes every year who are way hipper than me. Then again some of these guys are curled up inside their own belly buttons. I'm from the wilds of suburban New Jersey, but I wasn't raised by wolves. Koehler is who he is and I am who I am, which is to say an energetic, inquisitive, ahead-of-the-curve type with a clear agenda, which is trying to see and write about films that are at least good enough to be picked up and may actually be seen by people in this country, even if we're only talking urban cinefiles.

If you think I'm going to wallow around in extreme Cannes esoterica -- watching movies that don't even have a chance of turning up on DVD in the foreign section at Lazer Blazer-- you're very much mistaken. A tree falling in the forest makes no sound if people are not there to hear it.

Then again, I always feel heartbroken and ashamed if I miss something vital and strong and eternal, like when I missed Four Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days last May. I am determined not to miss that film this year, whatever it may be.

Posted by gruver1 at April 23, 2008 9:11 AM

comment #7

ZacharyTF says ...

Where's Fernando Meirelles Blindness?

Posted by ZacharyTF at April 23, 2008 9:14 AM

comment #8

JohnCope says ...

"Then again, I always feel heartbroken and ashamed if I miss something vital and strong and eternal, like when I missed Four Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days last May. I am determined not to miss that film this yeatr, whatever it may be."

I would put money on that being the Ceylan.

Posted by JohnCope at April 23, 2008 9:17 AM

comment #9

gruver1 says ...

Wells to John Cope: Why do you think the Turkish film may be the big essential? Explain what you know and what your instincts are telling you.

Posted by gruver1 at April 23, 2008 9:29 AM

comment #10

Jeffrey Kunze says ...

What's Egoyan's Adoration about and who's in it?

Any word on Synecdoche, NY? Hasn't Kaufman been working on this for a long time?

Posted by Jeffrey Kunze at April 23, 2008 9:31 AM

comment #11

Glenn Kenny says ...

Hey, Jeff, I'm from the wilds of Jersey too (not even suburban—hell, I lived in frickin' Paterson for five years) and I LOVE all that furrin-language-esoteric shit, so what's your excuse?

I can see why Cope picks the Ceylan. Ceylan's "Climates" got big cognescenti approval when it played in Un Certain Regard in 2006 (think the romantic anomie of Antonioni and the visual atmosphere of Tarkovsky, only more accessible and/or not quite as great), so getting into competition may signal a breakout for him.

Posted by Glenn Kenny at April 23, 2008 9:38 AM

comment #12

MickTravis says ...

OK, so rushed movies = good.

Finished movies that face distribution problems or studio troubles for longer than six months = bad.

Got it.

Posted by MickTravis at April 23, 2008 9:48 AM

comment #13

JohnCope says ...

To be honest, I have no inside word on this pick at all; it's just that Ceylan has proven to be consistently great (not just reliably good) and his aesthetic sensibility has somehow continued to improve from a starting point which was already excellent. The only hang up here is that he has been and continues to be pretty adverse to making big or even semi-big self-conscious social or political statements and in this "climate" that may work to diminish the impact of whatever he comes up with. Still, I would expect nothing less than greatness (for me he's in the absolute top tier of international filmmakers working today). If the impact of Daydreams does prove to be muted then I would look to the Martel or Egoyan (his Cannes short from last year was the best of the bunch by far and hopefully heralds a much needed return to form after a very long aesthetic draught). And, of course, Jia and the Dardennes are always reliable.

Posted by JohnCope at April 23, 2008 9:54 AM

comment #14

C.Mason says ...

Glenn, both DISTANT and CLIMATES were in Competition, not Un Certain Regard...

Posted by C.Mason at April 23, 2008 10:49 AM

comment #15

Karsten says ...

I second the attention given to Nuri Bilge Ceylan here. Personally, I think "Clouds of May" (competition in Berlin, 2000) is his finest piece. But with "Distant" and "Climates" he really proved the promise put forth in "Clouds", and expanded his horizon. Since he has yet to make his 'masterpiece', so to say, "Daydreams" may very well be the one. Whoever goes to Cannes, will see. I'm not one of them. (Sigh.)

Posted by Karsten at April 23, 2008 11:04 AM

comment #16

hanimal says ...

my money is on three films:
a christmas tale by arnaud desplechin
the frontier of dawn by philippe garrel
woman without a head by lucrecia martel

Posted by hanimal at April 23, 2008 11:19 AM

comment #17

Glenn Kenny says ...

Ah, shite, C. Mason; should have minded my Ps & Qs a little better there. Whenever I see a Cannes film in the Debussy rather than the Lumiere, some Pavlovian instinct always slots it into "Un Certain Regard." Sorry. So much for my dumbass theories...

Posted by Glenn Kenny at April 23, 2008 11:20 AM

comment #18

Unison says ...

Please note that the run time of Indy Jones is 125 mins in the Cannes announcement. I know that's been a major bone of contention on this site, so now the issue is settled...

Posted by Unison at April 23, 2008 11:36 AM

comment #19